


Pale Shadow

by Warlord5131



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: F/F, Lesbian Character, Magic, Original Character(s), Post-Canon, School, Yuri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2020-02-27 10:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18737575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warlord5131/pseuds/Warlord5131
Summary: It was the beginning of their second year at Luna Nova Academy, after the exciting events of the previous year the students were hoping, with perhaps the exception of a certain Japanese girl with a taste for adventure, excitement and trouble, for a more relaxing year.Constanze is hoping this year will be calm so that she can focus more on projects she has in mind. However, this hope is disrupted when a new student arrives at Luna Nova and Constanze finds herself oddly intrigued by this new student and doesn't understand why.





	1. Back to School

It was the beginning of their second year at Luna Nova Academy, after the exciting events of the previous year the students were hoping, with perhaps the exception of a certain Japanese girl with a taste for adventure, excitement and trouble, for a more relaxing year. With no dragons threating to shut down the school, no workers rioting across the school and no WMD threatening to start a war and kill countless people.

Flying towards the academy was a short blue haired German girl wearing a pale green t-shirt with a lightning bolt on the top with “Ist Leben” written under it, with brown leather gloves and trousers on, her name was Constanze on her modified broom which had a large propeller attached to the back granting her more speed as she travelled towards the academy. Constanze was looking forward to being able to get back into her workshop at school. While the one at home with her parents was nice it didn’t have as much space as she wanted for the future projects she had in mind. As she closed in towards the academy she reduced her speed until she came to a full stop slightly above the ground, she disembarked and removed her new duffel bag that she got over the break and hoisted it over her shoulder and turned towards the entrance.

There were many different students outside clearly waiting for the other members of their teams, so they could catch up and chat about how their break was, something Constanze knows very well she wouldn’t be doing with her muteness it would certainly be Amanda who would be doing all the chatting about her break with Jasminka occasionally adding something once and a while. Constanze couldn’t deny that she was looking forward to meeting up with the others again, she had grown fond of Amanda cocky easy-going attitude and Jasminka pleasant nature over the last year as a team and it would be nice to hear what they were up to. She was also interested to hear how the others got on during the break, well except maybe Hannah, Barbara and Diana, while her opinion of them had improved during the end of the last year it wasn’t to the point where she took an interest in what they did on their break. Sucy would certainly be interesting, and quite possibly disturbing, to hear from and whatever Akko did she would no doubt take every opportunity to enthusiastically tell anyone that asked. Constanze had to admit ever since Akko found, or more accurately stumbled across, her secret workshop she had become good friends with the bubbly witch and was keen to hear from her again.  
As Constanze was walking towards the entrance she was surprised when suddenly she found herself being lifted into the air by a certain redhead witch.

“Here’s the eternally grumpy girl I was looking for!” Said Amanda, wearing casual clothes like most of the students present, with her wearing a loose white t-shirt and black jeans. She then started rubbing her hand over Constanze blue hair causing it to become messed up. Constanze tried in vain to swat away the offending hand eventually settling to elbow Amanda in the stomach. She was finally dropped with a pained gasp coming from Amanda. Constanze then turned to Amanda with a scowl on her face and tried getting her hair back in line. Seeing this Amanda simply laughed and said: “Sorry, Cons I couldn’t help myself I just had to.” She then pointed behind herself and said, “Come-on, me and Jasminka were hanging out over there before I saw you landing she’s excited to see us all back together again.” This did end up removing the scowl from Constanze face as despite what a menace Amanda could be she was happy that her team was back together again. So Constanze picked up her things and went off in the direction Amanda pointed to while deliberately ignoring her for early, Amanda merely smiled at this and followed behind her.

It wasn’t long before they got to were Jasminka was sitting under one of the many trees that surrounded Luna Nova, she was wearing an enormous purple jumper and large blue skirt. Jasminka was busy eating sandwiches while she was waiting for Amanda to return with Constanze and upon seeing her she placed her sandwiches down on her bag and rushed off towards her yelling “Constanze!” and then proceeded to embrace Constanze in an enormous bear hug. Constanze gladly returned it, happy to see her friend again after their break. She breaks the hugs and asks Constanze, “Did you have a good break?”

Constanze nods to her and gives her a thumbs up.

“That great! I had a great time back at home I had a family gathering at my parents house and I got to meet up with all my cousins we had so much fun!” the pink haired girl exclaimed happily, she was about to go on further when Amanda approached the two and said, “Hey guys did you hear what everyone’s been talking about?”

Both turned to her and Jasminka asked, “No what are they talking about?”

“Apparently someone new is joining us this year.”

“You mean someone’s coming straight into the second year and skipping the first?” That surprised both Jasminka and Constanze, how can someone skip an entire year at Luna Nova? Not even Diana could do that and she’s descendant of one of the great nine old witches.

“From what everyone is saying they did go through the first year but couldn’t continue for some reason.” Said Amanda as she started to sit down up against the tree. Jasminka and Constanze also sat down, with Constanze laying her stuff next to her as she did. Jasminka pick up her sandwiches again once when she was sitting comfortably and asked, “What do you think caused them to delay their second year?” and they continued eating her sandwiches.

“Probably just family matters.” Amanda tossed out, then formed a lazy grin and said, “I doubt it’s because she stole a great and powerful artefact hidden away for millennia within the school and had to hid away in the face of rising suspicion.” She then turned to Constanze and ask, “What do you think Cons?”

Constanze merely shrugged, although she did wonder who this person was and why did they have to delay an entire year before moving into the second year, she did hope it wasn’t because of anything horrible but who knows. Amanda just continued to rattle off silly possible reasons as the other two listened. “Maybe she has a dark power and is being hunted by a powerful organisation to stop her before she unlocks it or she’s in on a big government conspiracy and needed to change her identity to protect the ones they love or maybe she needed to go on a quest to find 8 sacred artefacts to stop an invasion of body snatching lizards!” She and the others laughed a little to herself on that last one. Then a question formed in Constanze mind and got out her chalkboard to write it down, she kind of hoped last year that her friends would learn sign language last year but didn’t want to impose, and she would have her stan bot to speech for her once she gets it out of storage in her workshop not to mention last year was a little too busy to really ask them. She wrote down, ‘What team will she be on when she gets here?’

Amanda and Jasminka read that and thought about it, then Jasminka said, “If she’s on her own then she will probably have to join an existing team.”

Amanda nodded in agreement and said, “That makes the most sense if it is the case I hope she joins our team it would be so cool to have someone else to hang out with!”

Constanze looks at her sceptically and wrote down, ‘You just want someone else to help you with school work.’ Amanda looked at that and said, “Well, that would certainly help but don’t you guy agree it would be nice to have some else to hang out with.” Jasminka nodded in agreement and Constanze thought about it for a second and nodded, it would be nice to have someone else on the team unless they’re complete jerks, hopefully, that isn’t the case.

Amada decided to change topics as she didn’t want to endlessly speculate about the new student until the schools opening ceremony and said, “Anyway, do you think the other had fun on their breaks? Akko told me she would go back to Japan for the first half of the break and would be staying at Diana’s for the latter half of the year, you think that finally confessed to each other?” Amanda wiggled her eyebrows for the added effect which caused Jasminka to laugh. Constanze merely snorted and rolled her eyes, Akko had tried, unsuccessfully, to confess before but she always freezes up just when she was about to tell her and after several failed attempts the best Akko was able to do was convince Diana to hang out at her home for the latter half of the break. She swore if Akko didn’t tell Diana her feeling then, she would just go to Diana directly and explain it herself.

Suddenly, all three could hear panicked cries in the air and looked up to see someone on their broom flying, if you could call it that, down to the ground. The person managed to get enough control to make a safe landing near the trio, although they and their stuff fell off the broom and into the dirt. This person was non-other then Akko who got back on her feet after her less then successful landing looking a little dazed and with dirt all over her face. She dusted off the dirt from her orange jacket and blue shorts while mumbling something to herself.

“Speak of the devil and she will appear,” Amanda said, as she, Constanze and Jasminka got up and walked over to Akko. “Look on the bright side Akko, at least your flying better than last year!” Amanda yelled over to Akko who turned to the three of them and beamed when she saw them. She rushed over to them yelling “Guys! It's so good to see you again, was your break good? Mine was great you’re not going to believe what happened!” Akko was practically hopping on the spot when she talked, how she had so much energy even after crashing onto the ground Constanze will probably never known. 

Jasminka was about to reply when someone yelled “Akko” from above, everyone looked up to see a certain blond witch quickly descending to the ground, she disembarked and rushed up to Akko and said, “Akko what did I tell you about rushing off on your broom before we left! You could have really hurt yourself!” Dianna was one of the few students already in the Luna Nova uniform despite it not really being necessary, she grabbed Akko chin turning left to right to see if there was any serious damage done after seeing nothing was wrong she released Akko’s face and stood there looking cross at Akko for apparently ignoring Dianna’s warning. Akko just smiled and said, “Common Diana I can finally fly well after trying all of last year can’t I push myself a little” she also tried putting an adorable look on her face to try and convince Diana. It didn’t work. “I’m aware you're excited to fly after trying for so long but that does not excuse you being reckless,” Diana stated with no hint of her backing down from her stance on the matter.

Akko still tried to persuade her by pouting and saying, “Come on Diana I’ve been waiting for ages to ride a broom on my own can you let me off this once please.” Everyone could see Diana’s will crumbling under Akko’s pouting until eventually she sighed and said, “Fine but next time don’t fly off recklessly unless one of us is with you okay?” With that Akko flung herself at Dianna and wrapped herself around her repeatedly saying “Thank you!”, Dianna blushed but accepted the hug easily. Once that was down they turned to the green team only to see them all smiling at them. Amanda, who was smiling more slyly then the other two said, “So have you two got any interesting news for us? Akko said that she had a great time during her break does this have anything to do with it?”

Dianna and Akko both turned bright red and averted their eyes from the three, after Diana finished adjusting her witches’ hat, purely to delay having to answer the question, she said, “Yes, we do have something to tell all of you.” She took a deep breath but before she speaks she was distracted by Constanze writing on her board, which she turned around to show Diana. It said, “You and Akko are dating aren’t you.”

Diana and Akko were both flustered by this and Akko said, “Wait you know!?”

“Akko we and most of the school knows that you and Diana have a thing for one another,” Amanda said in a deadpan tone like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Diana stunned at this said, “Wait most of the school knows!?”

“We all guess as much by the way you both were acting during the last few weeks of term,” Jasminka said, finishing her sandwiches and pulling out a bag of honey roasted chestnuts from one of the pockets in her sweeter offering some to Amanda and Constanze who both declined.

“So, hang on,” Akko said rubbing the sides of her head trying to process what she just learned. ”Everyone in the school already knew about how we felt before we even confessed?”

“Everyone already knows what?” Everyone turned to see Sucy and Lotte walking over holding their things, both were also dressed in uniform already. Akko momentarily forgetting her embarrassment from rushed over and hugged her two friends, although Sucy was doing everything in her power to get out of Akko’s death grip. “It’s so good to see you guys again! What did you do on your break?” Akko said as she finally released her two friends from her bear hug. Sucy, brushing herself off, said, “Don’t try and change the topic Akko what were you guys talking about when we arrived?”

Akko went red-faced again and stammered “W-well you see…”

“We were talking about how everyone knows that Diana and Akko were crushing on each other.” Amanda interrupted with a toothy grin on her face as she told the two new arrivals.

“Oh! Does that mean you two have told each other your feelings!” Lotte said, wide-eyed in joy about her friends finally confessing their feelings to one another.

“Oh, come on! You guys knew as well!” Akko exclaimed, getting annoyed that everyone but her and Diana seemed to know that they had feelings for one another.

“It was pretty obvious when you had a dumb smile on your face when we talked about her Akko” Sucy said, wanting to take a jab at Akko now that they’re all back together again, something she almost certainly must have missed doing over the break, that and not having a useful test subject around for her experiments.

“It was that obvious,” Akko said, depressed that seemly everyone knows about how she felt just by spending the slightest be of time around her. Diana took the opportunity to wrap her arm around Akko the comfort her when being faced with the fact she was awful at keeping her feelings hidden “I’m afraid so, even Wangari and the press club came up to me and asked if it was true.” Said Lotte, unintendedly rubbing salt into the wound.

Akko just groaned and held her face in her hands. Diana signed and took the opportunity to say, “And here I was worried about how we would break this to everyone.”  
“So, you are together!” Lotte exclaimed happily to hear her friends say are finally together after they’ve been crushing on each other for so long.

Akko, after hearing Lotte enthusiasm about Akko and Diana’s relationship, smiled and wrapped her arm around Diana and said, “Yep! I finally confessed when I was staying at her place!”

“You mean after I cornered you and asked why you were acting so strange around me,” Diana said, smiling at Akko’s embarrassed face as everyone laughed at what Diana had said. “Well, it still counts.” Akko countered, which only made the laughing worse.

After, that all of them sat around talking about their breaks and what they did during them. After about an hour the teachers came out telling the students to head to their rooms and get changed into their uniforms and head to the initiation chamber when they were ready. They were going to announce what was happening this year and introducing a new student to the academy.


	2. The New Kid

Constanze and the rest of her team sat at the front during the announcements, most of it was just the teachers laying out what was happening this year, explaining their expectations for the students, to work and study hard and it was about as entertaining as she expected it to be. Amanda looked like she was about to pass out from boredom and Jasminka was rapping her fingers against her legs impatiently. The red team was doing just as bad with Akko looking like she was also about to pass out listening to the dull speeches, she perked up a little when Ursula stepped up, but it disappeared just as quickly when she started talking about the new rules the students would need to follow. Sucy was messing around with a small potion set not paying attention to what was being said. Not that anyone blamed her for doing so. Lotte was a least trying to pay attention although she seemed to zone out on occasion. The blue team was doing better by looking like they were paying attention, but it was clear that Hanna and Barbera had their heads in the clouds. Diana looked and probably was paying actual attention although Constanze found it doubtful she was enjoying herself.

Towards the end, the teachers finally moved on to something more interesting, namely the new student joining them this year. Headmistress Holbrooke stepped up to the podium and announced, “As you all have likely heard, a student who had to delay their second year at this academy is returning to resume their studies.” As she said this Constanze could feel everyone in the room starting to close attention pay to Headmistress Holbrooke all interested to hear about the new student. Holbrooke continued saying, “Now as you are all, hopefully, aware the students are organised into teams and because her original team has already left the school she cannot re-join them and so instead she will join an existing team from this year, who will be selected by chance.” She then indicated to a small bag sitting off to the side stating, “There are tags in this bag with colours that correspond to the teams here, the new student will pick a team by rummaging through the bag and take out a tag and will be assigned to the team chosen.” At this, most of the student body started talking amongst themselves about this new development but were silenced when Holbrooke held up her hand for silence. When they quieted down Holbrooke finished by saying, “But first let me introduce you to her, please come on up Miss Smith.”

Everyone termed to see the new student walking up to Holbrooke. She was wearing the normal Luna Nova uniform, but her skin was pure white making her look almost ghostly, her hair was long coming all the way down to her elbows and was just as white as her skin and there were her eyes, they were red not like Akko’s but bright red almost like two rubies’. As Constanze was looking at her, she wondered why she felt this strange feeling in her chest.

OC’s POV

‘Fucking Finally.’ Lucy Smith thought as she made her way up to Holbrooke. She understood the teachers need to go over everything with the students but couldn’t they have at least tried to make things more interesting, she was sure that some of the students fell asleep during the announcements and she couldn’t blame them they were so ridiculously tedious. When she finally made it next to Holbrooke she stood next to her and desperately tried to avoid eye contact with any of the students. She was hardly shy but got anxious when standing in front of a group this large, her looks and the crowd murmuring only made her feelings of apprehensiveness worse. 

Holbrooke then raised her hands again asking for silence, once she got it she pulled out her wand and levitated the bag over to them. ‘Couldn’t she have just placed it at the podium at the start or just ask her to bring over, then again she probably just wants to show off a little.’ Lucy though just wishing for this to be over with soon, so she can stop being the focus of attention. Once the bag landed in front of her, Holbrooke turned back to the students and said, “Everyone this is Lucy Smith, say hello to everyone Miss Smith.” 

Lucy awkwardly waved at the students and said: “Hello, everyone.” She then turned slightly to Holbrooke with a pleading look on her face. Holbrooke smiled in understanding and turned back at the students saying, “Now I expect you all to be welcoming now that she has returned from her temporary hiatus.” She then proceeded to pick up the bag and turned to Lucy again saying, “Now please take a token from the bag to see what team you will be assigned to.” Lucy looked at the bag closed her eyes and stuck her hand in and began rummaging around a little until finally grabbing a token, all the while thinking ‘Please be a good team, Please be a good team I think I’ve gone through enough to deserve this at least’ when she pulled out the token and open her eyes to see it was green.

She heard a small ‘Yes!’ appear from somewhere in the audience she turned her head slightly to see it came from a red-haired girl at the front of the audience with a huge grin on her face, next to her was a smiling pink haired girl and a small blued haired girl with a big red bow in her hair looking at her with an intrigued expression. Lucy let loose a small relieved sigh, they seemed alright hopefully they would get along well together. The blue haired one looks cute too so that was a plus.

After seeing the results Holbrooke turned the students and said, “There you have it, Miss Smith will join Team Green. Now that that’s done, we are finished for the day. Thank you for your time and we will see you in class tomorrow.” After that the students all made their way out of the hall, Lucy went out the other entrance to grab her things before going to meet her new team. Hopefully, things will go well now after last year she just wanted to get through the rest of her life without incident. She made her way out of the chamber and started heading through the halls to try and find her new team. As she walked along she passed by the hordes of students making their way to relax in their rooms or other parts of the school several of them greeted her as they passed by and she did the same. Eventually, she caught sight of the trio she was looking for waiting at the main entrance to the chamber, as she approached they all turned to see her walking up to them.  
When she was in earshot Lucy said with a smile on her face, “Ladies I’m afraid you have the displeasure of being partnered up with me for the future, I’ll try to make myself tolerable as possible but there’s no guaranty I’m afraid.” 

The red-haired one smiled back and said, “Don’t worry, if they can put up with me for as long as they have then they can put up with you just fine.”  
“Oh, good I was worried for a second there.” Lucy said already getting a good feeling from the redhead, she extended her hand saying, “As Holbrooke said I’m Lucy Smith its good to meet you, miss...?”

“Amanda O'Neill” Amanda said shaking Lucy’s hand she then indicated to the pink haired girl and said, “This is Jasminka Antonenko”

“Hello,” Jasminka said, shaking Lucy’s hand as well. 

Amanda then indicated to the cute little blue haired girl and said, “and this is Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger, don’t worry if it takes a while to remember it did for me.” Lucy extended her hand to her but Constanze looked away for some reason. Lucy got a little concerned that she did something wrong but Constanze eventually, without looking, took her hand a shook it very quickly.

Lucy smiled and said, “Is very nice to meet you Constanze.” Constanze merely nodded to her. Lucy’s concern came back and said, “Um, did I do something?”  
Amanda quickly intervened and said, “No, don’t worry Constanze just doesn’t talk is all.”

“Ow.” Lucy said and turned back to Constanze and signed ‘Would you like me to talk to you like this?’

Constanze eyebrows shot up and after a second signed ‘You can sign?’

Lucy smiled and signed ‘My friend from primary was deaf so I learned it to speak to her.’

Constanze looks at her for a second and finally signed back, ’Just speak normally is fine its easier for the others.’

Lucy raised an eyebrow and said, “You sure?” Constanze nodded again, although with a lot more enthusiasm than before. “Okay then.” Lucy then turned to the other two, who looked a little confused about what was said and stated, “So mind taking me to your…well our dorm room now I suppose, I don’t want to carry this stuff around all day.”

Amanda quickly snapped out of it and said, “Sure, after that we can introduce you to the others after if you’d like?”

“Sure, it is nice to meet some new people.” At that, Amanda turned around and lead the way to Green Teams dorm. 

On the way, Jasminka asked Lucy, “If you don’t mind me asking why you had to delay coming back for the second year?” Lucy managed to catch herself before her expression slipped and replied, “Personal reasons, look I’d rather not think about it.”

Jasminka looked down a little and said, “I’m sorry.” Lucy mentally slapped herself for putting that so poorly and quickly tried to salvage things by saying, “No need to apologise I should have put that a little more tactfully I just do really want to talk about it, I’ll make it up to you later okay?”

Jasminka looked back up seeming happier than before and said, “Sure that would be nice.” 

Amanda observing all this finally chipped in and asked, “So, do you know how this arrangement will work because our room only has three beds and, no offence but, I don’t feel like sharing.”

“They said they would get the workers to move in another bunk bed, but if they are as organised as they were when I was last here then I’m probably going to be sleeping on the floor for the next week or two.” Lucy still remembered when she had to use her clothes as covers for an entire week when she had to get rid of the old ones when her roommate burned them when working on her alchemy. She still hasn’t forgiven them for that considering it was in the middle of January when it happened.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy saw Constanze concerned expression and asked, “Is something wrong Constanze?”

Constanze turned to her and signed, ‘Just concerned you might be uncomfortable.’ Lucy smiled at her and said, “Thanks Constanze I appreciate it.” Lucy didn’t catch Constanze blush a little or Amanda quickly looking a Constanze with a grin on her face before facing forward again.

Constanze POV

The four of them made it back to Green teams’ room, they didn’t have time to put away all their things, so their bags were scattered about yet to be put away. Constanze would have to cover up the entrance to her workshop until the new bunk bed came in, she couldn’t risk the teachers finding out that she had an entire lab built under the school filled with the technology they continue to ban from the school for whatever ridiculous reasons they use. It was a good thing Lucy believed her when she said that she was just concerned that she might be uncomfortable, it wasn’t untrue but, she didn’t want her to know about her workshop until Constanze could figure out how she would feel about it. There were still very traditional witches out there who didn’t like magic being mixed with technology, she hoped Lucy wasn’t one of them but until then best keep it hidden until she knew.

Lucy dropped her two large bags in the corner of the room and turned around saying, “I’m assuming were unpacking our stuff at the end of the day, right?”  
“Yeah, there’s no real rush to unpack anything,” Amanda said removing her hat and clock and tossing them on her bed, Constanze and Jasminka did the same with theirs. Lucy followed suit and tossed hers on her bags. Without the clock and hat Constanze got a better look at Lucy’s figure and ended up doing a double take, she could practically see her muscles in her arms they were so well pronounced. Constanze ended up blushing again and pretended to look through her bags without commenting. Amanda was not so subtle.

“Damn Lucy! Did you spend the entire last year at lifting weights!” Amanda said, examining Lucy’s arm curiously.

Lucy just laughed awkwardly and put her arms behind her back saying, “No, is probably just genetic, anyway let’s go meet up with your friends!” Constanze found that odd, it didn’t sound like she was just shy about her appearance it was almost like she really did not want any attention drawn to how strong she was. Why?  
Amanda seemed to just shrug it off and said, “Sure, they should be outside by now.” Amanda started to walk out the door followed shortly by the rest of the group. Constanze was at the very back and could see Lucy’s eyes shifting about a little nervously and ran her hand other her left arm. Why did she look so nervous about something as simple as that? Constanze though about it for a few seconds but decided to let it go for now. Maybe after some time, she’ll open up about it and until then she’ll merely keep a note of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Little Witch Academia it is created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Trigger.


	3. The Gang

The four of them found their way to the outside and made their way over to where the others were hanging out, they must have all gone to their rooms to take off their hats and clocks as they didn’t have them on. They were sitting at one of the tables situated outside the school where the students could hang out. Diana was sitting next Akko across from an unconscious Hanna and Barbera if Constanze was a betting witch she would assume that Diana and Akko told them about their relationship and the sleeping duo took it about as well as they take most surprises. Akko was busy holding her head in her hands, almost certainly over the now unconscious duo, Lotte was reassuring her by patting her on the back, Sucy wasn’t really paying any attention, they also had an ornate tea set on the table that she must have brought down from her room.

When they walked up they all turned their way and Lotte waved at them and said, “Hi, guys we were just telling Hanna and Barbera that Akko and Diana were together and well…” She indicated over to the unconscious girls as she said so. ‘Called it.’ Constanze thought to herself as she and the rest sat down at the table. It was at this point that Lotte noticed Lucy among the group and perked up saying, “Oh! You’re the new girl aren't you!”

Lucy smiled and replied, “No, I’m one of the many albino girls running around the school, although I understand why you would mix us all up.” This got a small chuckle out of Sucy, who was still messing around with her potion set from earlier. Lucy then gave a concerned look towards the two sleeping beauties’ asking, “Should I be concerned about these two?”

“No, they’ll be fine after a bit, they always were a little overdramatic,” Diana replied taking a sip of her tea afterwards.

“You and I must have very different ideas of what cogitates little, miss?”

“Diana Cavendish”

“Really?” Lucy asked while raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, why do you sound surprised? Would you like some tea? I doubt my friends here will be having any.” She said indicating to her unconscious friends.

“Yes, please. It's just that this doesn’t strike as the type of crowd you would hand out with.” She turned to look at the rest of Green team saying, “No offence guys.”

Amanda just shrugged stating, “If you told me two years ago that I would hang out with someone like Diana I probably say you were mad.” Jasminka merely nodded her head in agreement while munching on crisps that had pulled out from somewhere. Constanze also just nodded in agreement as well. By this point had handed over a cup to Lucy, with her saying a quick “Thank you.” Before taking a sip.

Diana continued the conversation saying, “As much as it pains me to agree with Amanda yes I would not have suspected I would be enjoying my time with them a year or two ago, I suppose that’s one thing to thank for the event last year.” 

It was at this point Akko took her head out of her hand, probably embarrassed that Hanna and Barbera both passed out when they learned about her and Diana and looked over and realised that green team hand joined them. Her mood immediately improved and exclaimed, “Hi guys! How’s it like getting a new member for your team?” Constanze had to point to Lucy to get Akko to realise that said new member was sitting at the same table. It really amazed her how odd Akko’s attention was. When Akko turned and realised Lucy was right there said, “Oh sorry didn’t see you there I tend to miss things when I’m excited.”

Lucy mumbled, “Evidently.” Then took another sip of her tea before continuing, “Its fine miss?”

“Atsuko Kagari but just call me Akko.”

“Wait, Akko? The same Akko that teamed up with Diana here to stop that missile thing?” Lucy said, a surprised look on her face.

Akko smiled, a little smugly saying,” Yep, along with everyone else here.”

“Really?” Lucy turned her head towards the rest of the Green Teams and said, “You guys too?”

Amanda leaned back and smiled saying, “Yes, they wouldn’t have made it without me.” This statement earned her an elbow to the chest courtesy of Constanze. “Owf, okay! Okay! Jasminka and Constanze did a lot too.”

After that, she asked Sucy and Lotte their names and introduced themselves and ask who Hanna and Barbera as they weren't going to answer any questions any time soon.

Afterwards, Diana asked cautiously, “So miss Smith might I ask why you're attending Luna Nova?”

Lucy seems to not be offended by the question and replied, “Just Lucy please, I want to go into the enchanting business and do magical history on a side.”

Akko interjected at this saying, “Really? I can barely pay attention in magical history it’s so dull.”

“I suppose I can see that it doesn’t help that most of the teachers just toss information at you and hope you learn it. What about you, why’d you attend Luna Nova?”

At this Akko’s eyes sparkled and off to the side Sucy went, “Here we go.” Akko then started talking about how she wanted to be like Shining Chariot ever since attending her show and it was because of her that she is attending Luna Nova. Hearing this Lucy then said, “That’s actually surprising most people aren’t all that interested in Chariot anymore.” Lucy then took a moment before asking, “Wait you said you were inspired to attend because of her show, right? So, am I to guess that you’re not from a magical family?”

Akko face soured and looked to the side crossing her arms saying, “No.”

“Sorry, I probably should have put that better I have nothing against that at all its just this academy, teachers and students, has a tendency to drive people not from magical families away after a while.” When Lucy said that Diana looked off to the side looking a little guilty.

Akko simply sighed but eventually smiled and said, “Yay, but I just ignored them and work as hard as I could and here I am in my second year!”  
Lucy smiled back and replied, “Good to hear I hope you keep doing well.”

Akko ended up forming a frown, leaning on the table before muttering, “Hopefully I won’t get my head bitten off as much by the teachers this year.”  
Constanze was then taken aback by how much Lucy's face darken quite drastically when Akko said that. After a moment Lucy said, “By teachers, I’m assuming you're just talking about that rotten bitch Finneran right?”

That caught everyone off guard not just the way she referred to the professor but by how much venom and hatred was in her voice. Akko looked wide-eyed at Lucy, Diana choked on her tea, Jasminka reeled a little, Sucy look up from her potions with a surprised look on her face and Lotte looked a little scared by how much loathing was emanating from Lucy, Amanda despite numerous occasions bad mouthing the teachers was also shocked by Lucy and Constanze was actually disturbed by how much Lucy’s attitude had shifted going from pleasant if a little snarky to this.

Akko recovered first and said tentatively, “I-I wouldn’t go that far I mean she’s strict but…”

“Then you are infinitely kinder then I am but my patients with Finneran has not so much run thin as outright snapped into pieces, she berates students for the slightest mistake, because you know learning is about instantly knowing everything about a topic and not making a single error whatsoever and berating anyone who does make a mistake no matter how slight.” Throughout Lucy monologue, she started looking unfocused, probably thinking back to her first year. When she was finished the outright anger and loathing was mostly gone but it was still somewhat there. She eventually sighed and said, “Sorry, me and Finneran do not get along well this stuff just kind of slips out when she mentioned.”

Amanda ended up speaking first out of the group to try and break the tension saying, “It fine will all bad mouth are teachers at one point or another right?”  
“True, although probably with a lot less venom.” The silence after was making even Constanze uncomfortable but thought of a way to break it and hopefully steer the conversation away to something else. She waved a Lucy to get her attention when she looked up Constanze signed, ‘If it helps you can talk about it with us when you feel comfortable too.’ Lucy smile returned at that saying, “Thanks, I definitely think about it.”

“You know sign language?” Lotte asks looking better now that Lucy wasn’t so angry anymore.

“Yes, one of my friends was deaf so I learn so I could talk to her without going through piles of paper and dozens of pencils,” Lucy explained and eventually the conversation started up again moving away from Lucy’s outburst and on to different things lasting until about 4 in the afternoon. In a moment when Lucy wasn’t talking she turned to Constanze and smiled mouthing ‘Thank you.’ Constanze nodded at her with that funny feeling she had when she first saw Lucy coming back again but slightly stronger. 

OC POV

Ever since her little outburst, Lucy was continuously berating herself for letting herself get angry that quickly. She didn’t think anyone noticed her change in magically aura when that happened, she hoped none of them did, there was no telling what would happen if they notice what power she was emanating. She was thankful that Constanze helped her divert the conversation away from her outburst towards other inconsequential things to discuss. 

After about 4 o’clock everyone decided to head to back to their rooms with Diana and Akko carrying…what were there names again? Eh, she’ll learn them another time, anyway as Green Team made their way back so she decided to ask Constanze about the food being served, “Hey Constanze, I’m curious has the school decided to start serving actual food or is it the same bland tasteless rubbish they served during my year?” Hoping against hope that they did, she really couldn’t stomach the idea of eating that second-hand crap again, not after having real food last year. Yes, she knows the teachers encouraged the students to use magic to change the taste of the food to make it more palatable but that’s no excuse for lazy cooking, especially considering the teachers themselves didn’t follow this considering how much actual nice food was in storage, that she had stolen from sometimes during her year, that they got.

Sadly, it was not meant to be as Constanze turned to her and shook her head, judging by her expression she also shares my very low view of the canteen food. Jasminka pitched in saying, “I just use magic to make it taste better.”

“I guessed as much, that’s what a lot of people did when I was last here but just because they know we can do that shouldn’t mean that they can just make the blandest stuff imaginable”

“Thank you,” Amanda added. They added, “Hey, Lucy do you have any friends you know from when you’re last here?”

“Not really, I just hung out with my team most of the time. Well, there was…someone else but they dropped out before the end of the year.” Lucy felt the earlier anger start to return but clamped down on it before it got worse. The others must have sensed how sensitive this was for Lucy because they didn’t inquire further.

After that the rest of the day passed by like a blur, they got their dinner in the canteen, the food is about as bad as she remembered, once that was over everyone made their way back to their dorms. The rest of the evening passed by with Green team talking to each other before getting to bed or sleeping bag in Lucy’s case. As Lucy was falling asleep she was hoping for a semi-peaceful year, after the madness that was last year she’d earned it.


	4. Classes

The next morning everyone was getting ready for classes. Their first one would be potions, Professor Lukic would probably be the same as she was when she was last here, needlessly creepy just to frighten students. Despite that, she was looking forward to it. It might be one of her weakest class but at least Lukic made things more interesting than the other teachers.

When Green team arrived, most people were already seated at their assigned desks, so Green team made their way to theirs. After waiting a while longer Professor Lukic walked into the classroom with that crooked grin on her face and box full ingredients to do who knows what with. Once she placed said ingredients on the table she turned towards the students but did a double take when she saw Lucy she walked up to her and said, “Miss Smith, so good to see you again.”

“Good to be here.”, Lucy said a little awkwardly hoping she would not talk about her performance in this class when she was last here.

“Now are we going to have a repeat of the incident last time you were here Miss Smith?”

God damn it. “No miss.”, Lucy grumbled out.

“Good. Now then on to our first class, higher potion making.” While saying that Lucy turned to look at Green Team all giving her a questioning look, she just mouthed ‘Tell you later.’ Although she was not looking forward to doing so. The lesson went on without incident, Professor Lukic went over what would be happening this year and showed us one of the types of potions we would be making, something called ‘salutem potionem’ or something like that. After about two hours class was over and everyone packed up to leave, as we were making our way outside Amanda leaned in and asked with the usual grin on her face, “So what was that about the ‘incident’.”

Lucy just sighed rubbing her head before saying, “Let’s just say I don’t have the best skills with potions.” 

That, however, didn’t seem to be good enough as Amanda pressed for more by saying with that grin still plastered on her face, “You did something didn’t you.”  
Lucy groaned but finally decided to fess up saying, “Okay, I…might have nearly burned down the class once or twice.”

The three of them just stared for a few seconds before they started laughing, well Constanze didn’t but she was trying to hide her smile by looking away and holding her hand to her mouth. The fact Lucy was frowning at them probably didn’t help. Once they calmed down Jasminka ask, “How did you manage to nearly burn down the class twice?”

“Look, I get confused with all the ingredients and ways you have to mix them and the order you have to put them in the bowl.”

“Cauldron.” Amanda corrected.

“Yes, thank you,” Lucy grumbles. “Okay, the point is I have never been good at this stuff. I’m so bad I even failed chemistry in secondary school.”

“Damn, you’re that bad?”

“Yep, it got to the point where my teacher wouldn’t even let me use the equipment towards the end of the year.”

Constanze got Lucy’s attention and signed to her, ‘What were the results for your exam?’

“I just barely go a C, I dropped the subject as soon as I could I wasn’t any good at it and I didn’t even like it. Now it comes back to haunt with potions class. Anyway, what’s our next class?”

Jasminka took out our class schedule which, of course, had to be handwritten since no technology was allowed in school so no printers. “We have advanced broom training in about an hour then its study an hour after that.”

“Okay, should we just go wait outside until class starts?” Amanda asked, the other three agreed and started heading down to where the broom class were going to be held.

Constanze POV

As they walked outside they could see some of the others sitting on the grass waiting for the next class as well. The red team were sitting on the side of the tracks although they were talking to several other groups. Constanze could tell what they were talking about considering how much Akko was blushing and how much Sucy seems to be enjoying the conversation.

She nudged Amanda and then pointed towards Red Team, when the rest of the team saw them they headed over towards them. The girls surrounding Akko, bombarding her with questions, upon seeing Green Team approach decided what they learned was enough for now and headed off towards their own spot near the track when Green Team came over. When they left Akko sighed and laid down on her back.

“The fame getting to you?” Lucy said with a bit of a smile on her face when she was looking down at Akko.

Akko looked up with a frown on her face saying, “I expected people to ask about me and Diana, but I didn’t think I would be asked about it this often.”

“Really? You start dating Diana Cavendish a noble who is descended from one of the nine olde witches and though not many people would be interested to know.”   
Lucy asked, with more than a bit of sarcasm present.

“I did know this would happen I’ll have you know I just didn’t think I would be asked every class by three people.”

“Well, don’t worry people are fickle and in about a week or two people will move on.” Said Lucy sitting down with the rest of Green team doing the same.

“Don’t count on that for me Akko.” Sucy piped in, grinning, likely going to enjoy teasing Akko about her relationship for many months to come.

Akko groaned at that covering her face with her hands. After that the others started conversing with one another with Lucy started talking with Lotte presumably because they didn’t all that much yesterday. 

While Constanze started rummaging around in her bag until she found her note pad filled with ideas that she was working on before returning to school. After her adventures with Akko during the Wild Hunt and she had been brainstorming trying to think of any ideas for her next big project, but she still hasn’t decided on what to do. She was planning on filtering through what she had, deciding what ideas to keep or to toss out quickly before broom class began. Over the next few minutes she had crossed out some ideas, but she kept catching herself zoning out looking at Lucy a couple of times. 

About 10 minutes later the teacher arrived and the class started up. Constanze looked one more time at Lucy before lining up with everyone else, she shook her head thinking, ‘Why do I keep getting distracted by her.’

After that classes were over for the day the Green team and Red Team decided to hang out outside at the same place they did yesterday. All apart from Constanze who excused herself, saying she needed to look up a book in the library. In reality, she was heading back to their room to hide the entrance to her workshop, but not before getting her Stanbot out from storage along with some of her tools. Hopefully, the school does replace the beds quickly, she did not like the idea of waiting for aeons just to start some major work in her workshop.

The Next Day

On Wednesday in the early morning, Green team were heading to magical history and things were…tense. This was one of Finneran classes and seeing Lucy’s option on her they were all wondering what would happen when they reached class. Blue team were already there with Diana and her teammates with their notebooks and pens in front of them ready to start taking note. If Diana was concerned about Lucy and Finneran she didn’t show it.

When they reached the classroom, they took their assigned seats, Finneran wasn’t there yet and neither was half the class. The entire time Lucy had a very neutral look on her face, although she was probably keeping her expressions in check. Constanze and the others really hoped this did not escalate, the last thing the group needed was to be absolutely hated by one of the teachers.

Gradually, the students trickled in bit by bit more then a few were looking very tired as they slumped into their seats with Red team arriving close to last with Sucy and Lotte dragging a very tired looking Akko to their seats and after a few more minutes the rest of the stragglers arrived and took their seats.

Eventually, Finneran arrived carrying a bundle of papers saying, “Right class, we're going over what we are doing for the year and giving an introduction on early magical history is that clear.” She surveyed over the classroom until she set her eyes on Lucy and a small frown formed on her face, she strode over to Lucy, who’s was busy glaring at Finneran, saying “Miss Smith.”.

“Finneran,” Lucy replied with as much venom laced in her voice as she did on Monday and everyone turned to look at her clearly taken aback by the way she was talking to Finneran. There was also…something else, this strange ominous aura that surrounding Lucy, it was small, but it was very off-putting.  
Finneran didn’t seem to be put off by Lucy however and said, “I see you’re still attitude hasn’t improved since last time.”

“What can I say, I’m not that easy for you to push around and bully like other students,” Lucy said, with that ominous aura surrounding her seems to only get stronger to the point were Constanze heart was thrashing in her chest and unease seemed to fill her as well as the need to flee from the room.

Finneran, from the look of her, seemed to be feeling it too but did not back down retorting, “Miss Smith let me make this very clear to you that I am not tolerating this attitude of yours or I’ll-“

“Or what Finneran? If I remember correctly you can’t expel me unless I start failing all my studies, which won’t happen, or I do something that violates the law, so you can’t do that. Detention? There no way the Head will approve it just because of my attitude so that’s out. You could intentionally fail me, but you have too much integrity to that, one of the few nice things I’ll say about you, so you have nothing you can loom over me so stop tossing out empty threats and just get on with the class already.”

As Lucy finished her aura was incredibly intense by this point, Constanze felt her hand go to her wand on instinct and the light around Lucy seemed to become darker and her eyes almost appeared to be glowing a malevolent red as she stared at Finneran. As for Finneran, the intensity Lucy was giving her, combined with what she said seemed to break Finneran icy exterior as even she seems to be taken aback by the viciousness of Lucy statement. So, she simply recomposed herself and started class as if nothing happened.

After that Lucy strange aura dissipated when she realised that everyone was looking at her and she leaned right back into her seat looking like she wanted to disappear. Constanze was much calmer after that and her heart beat calmed but now her mind was occupied with what just happened, that didn’t feel natural, there was some else to it and she was going to find out after class.

After Class

The moment class ended Lucy wasted no time in excusing herself before booking it away from the rest of Green team, they were about to pursue but were stopped by Diana who came up to them along with Red team saying, “Let her go.”

Amanda frowned at this replying, “But shouldn’t we ask-“

Diana merely held up her hand and interjected saying, “Before we do, we should discuss this among ourselves before we do anything just going up and asking her might not end well.”

Amanda looked like she wanted to argue that, but logic won out and stayed silent. Jasminka sept forward and asked, “Should we go to one of our rooms to talk?”  
Lotte stepped forwards saying, “We should head to our room. Lucy might have headed back to her room.” They all nodded at that and all headed to Red teams’ room. The whole way there Constanze was very worried about what had happened to Lucy. Why? She only met her recently. Yes, she was nice, especially to her and it was nice to ‘talk’ with someone instead of relying on her Stanbot and she was very pretty-Wait were did that come from? Yes, it was true but why did that matter, why did she even think about it at all? Before she could think about it they had arrived at Red teams’ room, she just shakes her head to try and dispel these thoughts. She would think about it later now though they needed to talk about what happened in History class.

Once everyone was inside Diana open up by saying, “I think you are all aware that there is something off about Lucy, the reaction she created in from all of us and Finneran was magical in nature, but it was not one any of us know of the question is what do we do about it.”

Jasminka was the first one to speech saying, “Lucy was very nice to us all, I don’t think she means anyone any harm, so we could just ask her what’s wrong?”

“But what if that’s just an act to lower our guard?” Sucy asks and for whatever reason Constanze felt annoyed at that despite being a perfectly reasonable assumption. Lotte interjected saying, “I don’t think so I’ve been talking to one of the spirts,” she indicates to her hands were a small purple spirit was sitting, Constanze realised how caught up in her thoughts she was in her own thought that she didn’t notice it. Lotte continued stating, “and asked about her and he said that Lucy wasn’t bad or evil, but she was hiding something.” When she finished she stroked the top of the little spirts head causing it to purr.

At this point Akko stood up from her seat next to the desk walked closer to the group and said, “Well, if she’s just hiding something why not do what Jasminka said and just ask her what’s wrong?”

Amanda looked at her and said, “We’ve only known her for a couple of days if its something serious she might panic and ran from the school.”

At that everyone started thinking of what to do until Constanze got her chalkboard out of her bag and wrote, ‘Why not just pretend to not know anything and carry on as normal until we think we can confound her about it?’ Everyone thought about that before nodding.

Amanda then stood up from Sucy’s bed and said, “Okay, let's do that. Will want until she’s comfortable telling us what’s wrong. If anything, else odd happens will let everyone else known okay.” Everyone agreed and headed off to different places. Sucy and Lotte decided to stay in their room, Diana headed off to the library with Akko saying she was going to try, and research unknown magic and see if any match the effect Lucy had during history. As for Green team, they headed back to their room until the next class, which was well into the afternoon, to wait and see when Lucy turned back up or if she was there already. Constanze was hoping for the former instead of the later because that would give her time to think over her weird thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Little Witch Academia it is created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Trigger.


	5. Cracks in the Mask

Lucy’s POV

While this was happening, Lucy was standing in front of a mirror in the bathroom rubbing her hands on her face. ‘I should have known I would lose control.’ Lucy thought to herself while brooding in front of the mirror. When she lowered her hands, she saw her eyes reflected in the mirror. The bright red Irises were now glowing ominously in the mirror, the pupils instead of being circular had become narrow slits the colour of gold and the sclera was now a deep black, so black that the light hitting it seemed to be sucked in instead of reflecting off. ‘Someone must have sensed something off, I let go far too much for them not to have. Should I just tell them? No, they’ll panic and inform the teachers and then the ministry and then who knows what will happen. I might have to do that if they did notice something off, please let that not be the case I just came back, and I really don’t want to have to throw that all away. She groaned and grabbed the sides of the sink before closing her eyes and took several deep breaths before opening her eyes again to see they were back to normal or was concealed more appropriate she never really decided which.

At that, she walked out of the bathroom and started making her way towards Green teams’ room. She would have to think of a very, very good excuse before getting there. Just as she left she used some of her powers to avoid being seen, as she did shadows coiled around her encompassing her utterly before making her vanish in completely and silently from sight. She didn’t want to run into anyone she knows in the hallway at the moment especially not before she talked to her group. She really hoped they either didn’t notice anything or they believe whatever excuse she makes up, she might have only known them for a few days but she was starting to really like them and their friends, especially Constanze she was a lot of fun to ‘talk’ with and she made her feel more comfortable when she was around for some reason, the fact she was cute to help to. Kind of like-she grimaced at the wave of painful memories surfacing before forcing them back down. Now was not the time to think about that she had other things to worry about right now.

As she moved through the school she didn’t make a sound, courtesy of her powers, passing by students with them being none the wiser to her passing. She heard bits and pieces of conversation as she passed by but paid no attention to it. It wasn’t long before she made it to her and the other room she made sure the hall was clear before disengaging her powers. She stood in front of the door, took a deep breath and opened the door. Where she saw the rest of Green team seating around the room.

“Oh, hey guys.”

“Hey.” Replied Amanda and Jasminka with Constanze simply waving her hand at Lucy.

“So, about what happened in history.”

“Oh that, that was awesome!” Amanda exclaimed

“You see-Wait what?”

“Finneran can be the worst sometimes and you just knocked her down a peg like it was nothing! It was so cool.” Amanda said an enormous grin on her face.

“Yes. I can get very intense when I get angry.” Lucy replied, quickly recovering from being taken aback by Amanda’s statement. Did they really not notice anything? No, they had to have known something was up. It was impossible for them not to notice. Could it? 

Her thoughts were interrupted by Jasminka saying, “It was scary seeing you angry though so can you avoid that in the future.” Lucy thought about that for a moment, ‘Okay, maybe they did notice but thought it was just the shock of seeing me that angry. Good, looks like I won’t have to run off after all.’ “Okay, fair enough I’ll try not to lose it like history, I promise.”

Everyone nodded, and everything seemed to be patched up when.

“Miss Constanze would like to inform you that she is glad everything is okay now.”

…

“What was that?” Lucy asked, going into a combat-ready pose in case of attack. She looked at Constanze to find her with a panicked look on her face when out from under the bed came…something. It was a tiny metal humanoid robot with a cuboid head that looked like an old PlayStation one, it approached Lucy and said, “I am Constanze Stanbot I am pleased to meet you.”

Lucy lowered her guard a little at seeing the ‘Stanbot’ and then turned to Constanze saying, “So you made this?” Constanze was looking away from Lucy but nodded.

“Really? That incredible!” Lucy said, bend down to pick the Stanbot up and started inspecting it. “How did you make it? I know with magic but how specifically? And how did you make him without the school finding out?” Lucy continued to rattle off questions before the Stanbot raised its hand in a stop motion causing her to end her list of questions before saying, “Miss Constanze cannot answer so many questions that quickly please ask them one at a time and please let me down.”

Lucy did what was asked and put the Stanbot down before heading over to Constanze bed and sat down next to her then asking, “Okay, so how did you make him?”  
Constanze instead of signing to her instead took out her chalkboard and started writing down something on it. As Lucy was waiting patiently she glanced over to Amanda and Jasminka who seemed to be holding back smiles. Why?

Before she could ask though Constanze finished and handed her the board. There was a diagram of the Stanbot with comments made by Constanze about building him. After reading it she looked up to Constanze and said, “You planned and built him all by yourself?” Constanze nodded. “Damn, I wish I was as clever as you,” Lucy said after looking back at the diagram. She didn’t catch the blush on Constanze face or the small snicker from Amanda. A minute later she looked back up and asked,  
“So what can he do?”

Constanze signed to Lucy all the different things her robot could do and as she went on Lucy’s face became the very image of amazed and shocked. When Constanze finished Lucy, still amazed that a small such a small robot could do so much, asked, “It can do all of that?” Constanze nodded. “Does it also follow the three laws of robotics.”

Constanze shook her head. “Ah, really?” Lucy said, oddly let down that Constanze robot didn’t have them but shrugged it off. Speaking of books she needed to pick which one she was going to read first, laying down the chalkboard and walked over to one of her bags opened it and started rummaging around trying to find the newest books she recently bought before coming to school. She didn’t hear the rest of them walk over to her and peak over to see just how many books were in the bag. A lot. There were a lot of them. A good half of the bag was taken up by books of all sorts like History, Sci-fi, Fantasy and Biographies.

Seeing this Amanda picked up one of the books at random saying, “Damn, Lucy how many books do you need?” Flicking through the book she just picked up with the title “Iron Kingdom”.

Lucy turned to look at Amanda replying, “Trust me, I would have just brought my kindle, but you knew how the school is with technology so this is the best I can do.” She then turned back to her bag before finally grabbing what she was looking for. While she was shuffling through the ones in her hand Constanze started looking through the ones she could see in the bag. Some were clearly well used while others looked fair new; Constanze even saw a few she recognised like the Time Machine and the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde both were fairly well used, others she didn’t like one book in the corner with the title the King in Yellow. She wondered if Lucy would be okay with her borrowing one of her books to read through, she decided to ask just to make sure.

Lucy felt Constanze tap her side and turned towards her. Constanze Stanbot, who was doing something under the bed that no one could see, came up to her and said, “Miss Constanze wishes to ask if it is alright if she could borrow one of your books at any point?”

“Sure, you can even keep some it if you want too.”

Constanze looked up with an eyebrow raised. Stanbot spoke up again saying, “Miss Constanze, wish to ask if you are sure of that.”

“Positive, besides better you make use of it then having then all stay in the bag all year,” Lucy said, smiling at Constanze while doing so. Constanze looked down and blushed a little at seeing Lucy smile but quickly looked but up smiled a little and gave her a thumbs-up before turning around and started looking to see any books she might be interested in. Lucy felt weird seeing Constanze smile, not an unpleasant one but one she couldn’t really place.

She couldn’t really think about it though as Jasminka tapped her shoulder. When she turned around she asked, “What is it Jasminka?”

“Lucy, why do you have so many books?” Jasminka said with Amanda putting the book down and stood next to Jasminka, even Constanze had put the book away and came over to her the answer.

“Well…I couldn’t really decide what ones to take so I ended up taking…most of them.” Lucy said, looking away sheepishly.

Amanda snorted and chuckled a little before saying, “You really don’t know the concept of restraint do you.” After saying that the other girls joined in the giggling.

“Yay, laugh it up you three,” Lucy said trying to maintain a frown on her face but failed as a small smile peered through.

After they were done gigging Lucy zipped her bag up and put it in the corner of the room and turned to the others stating, “So what should we do now? We have two hours until our next class.”

“The canteen should be open soon, let's get something to eat before our next class.”, Jasminka suggested, and everyone nodded at the idea and headed out. Just before they left Lucy saw Constanze put her little friend on the back of her head and it clung to her hair to stay on. Lucy couldn’t help but smile a little at how dear it looked and said, “Your little friend needs a lift?”

Constanze looked up at her and signed, ‘It's quicker than waiting for him to follow us.’

“Fair enough,” Lucy said as both of them joined the other two as they headed off to the canteen.

Friday after classes

“Hey, Lucy we’re heading into town tomorrow, want to come?”, Amanda asked after Green team left their zoology class.

“Sure. Who’s going just our team or the others coming to?”

“The others are coming as well. Akko even managed to rope in Diana.”

Lucy chuckled a bit at that. How those two are together is something she was still struggling to understand seeing how different those two were most of the time. She supposed the saying “Opposites attached” had more credence then she was thought. She looked back at Amanda before saying, “Where are we going to go anyway?” 

“A couple of places, we’ll probably split up and meet back up for launch at one of the local restaurants. Sound good?”

“Great, what do you think you’ll do in town?”

Amanda just shrugged and said, “I tend to just go with the flow and see if anything interests me.”

Lucy turned to Jasminka, asking, “You?”

“I’m going to buy snacks.” Lucy nodded, although she still wondered where she put all those snacks.

“Constanze?”

‘Hardware store’, she signed to Lucy.

“Okay but be careful. The teachers will not react well if they find out you’ve brought technology to the school alright.” Lucy said she didn’t like the idea of someone as smart as Constanze getting in trouble and possibly getting expelled over the school’s draconian rules. Constanze for her part looked a little slighted and signed, ‘You really think I can’t keep this hidden from them?’ Lucy thought about that and laughed a little and replied, “Good point.” The conversation trailed off into other topics as the group made their way towards their room. Lucy admitted she was excited to go out and relax. It had been a while since she had done that with everything that happened, now with that behind her she could start living again.

Belfast – North Ireland - Royal Victoria Hospital

In the Royal Victoria Hospital, a nurse was doing his rounds of the wards, after this, he was planning on heading home, he just needed to check the last patient before heading out. The patient was brought in three months ago after she was found buried in a collapsed mine not far outside of Belfast. She was out cold the entire time despite not appearing very hurt when she was brought here.

When he entered the room, he went to her bedside to look at her heart rate and check the IV. She had raven black her that came up to her shoulders, slightly pale skin, blue eyes and a very athletic build. They had tried to figure out who she was but there was no record of her, so she wasn’t a British citizen and they were contacting other countries to try and figure out who she was but nothing solid so far. They would have to wait until she wakes up before they could figure out where she came from. Everything seemed to be in order, her breathing was normal, heart rate was good and the IV was fine. 

Once that was done he headed out to head home. A while after he left the women on the bed raised up, pulled the IV out of her arm and tore off the rest of the apparatus attached to her, she then headed over to the window and pulled it open and climbed out the window. She snuck out of the hospital perimeter with ease but before disappearing entirely she looked back at the hospital, with pure unnatural black eyes staring out instead of the normal blue, they disappeared into the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Little Witch Academia it is created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Trigger.


	6. Weekend Excursion

It was morning the next day and the Green team were getting ready before meeting up with others and head out into town. Amanda was wearing blue jeans and a white short sleeved t-shirt with sunglasses. Jasminka was wearing a yellow long-sleeved shirt with a long deep blue skirt holding a peach coloured handbag. Constanze was wearing brown shorts with multiple large pockets with a Green T-shirt with E=mc2 printed on the front, with a brown backpack strapped to her back and her every present Stanbot standing on her shoulder. Lucy for her part was wearing a long sleeve white shirt with black trousers with a black backpack. She emerged out from behind the wardrobe they moved to give each other privacy when they changed.

When Lucy emerged, she walked up to the others saying, “Okay, I’m ready. Should be head out?”

“Sure, the others should be waiting for us at the entrance.”, Amanda said getting up from the bed and the group with their brooms made their way outside. When they got there the others were waiting with their brooms. Everyone but Sucy was wearing casual with Akko wearing a white T-Shirt with blue shorts, Lotte wearing a white shirt, light blue sweater vest and skirt and Diana was probably the best dressed out of everyone wearing a light green dress and some modest jewellery and a handbag.

“Hey guys, is everyone set?”, Amanda asked.

“Yep, now come on! We’re burning daylight!”, Akko said before getting on her broom and started flying, unsteadily, but flying nonetheless. Diana sigh mumbling, “Why do I bother telling her to wait.” Before getting onto her broom and taking off with everyone else following right behind her.

After about 10 minutes they landed just outside of town. Once they gathered round Diana spook up saying, “Alright, we’ll meet back up at the town centre and get something to eat in about an hour and a half okay?” They all nodded and went their own separate ways. Sucy and Lotte headed off to that Magic Item Café in town and Akko and Diana went off to book store, leaving the green team on their own.

Lucy opened up by saying, “So where should we head to first?” Amanda thought about it then glanced at Constanze and smiled as she thought of something.

“Me and Jasminka will head off to the supermarket. You can go with Cons to get whatever she’s getting. Sound good. Great see you in a bit!” Amanda stated quickly and took Jasminka hand before speeding off before Lucy could reply. 

Lucy just stood there with Constanze dumbfounded for a few seconds before recovering and saying still slightly stunned, “Okay then I guess will see you later.” But by then they were too far off for them to possible hear. She then turned to Constanze saying, “Lead the way I suppose.” Constanze nodded and started walking wondering why Amanda had run off like that with Jasminka, leaving her and Lucy on their own. She’ll just ask them when they get back to the academy.

After a short while, Lucy spoke up again saying, “So what are you planning to get from the store?”

Constanze simply took a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Lucy. It was a magazine ad for a new high-density rechargeable battery called Solis batteries, there were a couple of bullet points about the battery but what really drew her attention was the price, £200 per battery. After staring at that for a couple of seconds she looked back at Constanze saying, “Hey Cons, I don’t want to be a downer but are you sure you can afford this? It’s fairly expensive.”

Constanze looked up at her, nodded and signed, ‘I worked over the summer, I can afford it.’

Lucy shrugged before handing Constanze the ad back while replying, “If you say so.” They continued on until they came to a hardware store near the middle of town with dozens of ads on the front of the window with one of them being the battery Constanze was looking to buy. Next to the Hardware store was a small shop selling food and drink. Seeing that Lucy taped Constanze on her shoulder and when she turned stated, “Hey Cons, should I get us drinks from the shop over there while you go get your battery?” Constanze looked at the shop then turned back and nodded at Lucy. “Okay, what do you what?” 

Constanze shrugged and signed ‘Anything will do.’

“Fair enough, I’ll see you in a bit,” Lucy said before heading to the shop while Constanze headed inside the Hardware store.

Constanze POV

Constanze walked into the Hardware store, leaving her broom at the front, started passing by various tool and other items looking for the Solis battery. After a short while she found what she was looking for, lifted it up she took it to the front desk with her Stanbot standing underneath the battery to help her hold it as it weighted almost half as much as she did. When she got to the front desk she placed the battery down, after her Stanbot got out from under it, and stood on top of it to ring the bell on the desk. 

Its at times like these were she really wished she was a lot taller like Amanda or strong like Lucy if the look of her arms was anything to go by, she wondered what the rest of her looked li- Constanze shock her head to try and clear away that train of thought, she’s barely known Lucy that long, it was not appropriate to start thinking about things like that. Thankfully, the owner came out from the back and saw Constanze. She had black hair tied up in a bun and was wearing a red t-shirt and jeans. Her name was Emily and Constanze had known her since last year since she bought a lot of stuff from here and whenever she ordered something it would be dropped off here for her to pick up.

When Emily saw Constanze she smiled and walked up to the desk saying, “Hello Constanze, had a nice holiday?”

Constanze nodded, before stepping off the battery and tried to hoist it up to the top with Stanbot on her shoulders trying to help. Emily reached over and picked it up and placed it on the table with a thud. She then turned to Constanze saying worriedly, “Are you sure you can carry this? It would be hard enough to carry for a couple of minutes let alone all the way back to your academy?” 

Constanze nodded again, she had finally thought of a new project and she really needed this battery to complete it. Carrying it would be annoying and tiring but it would be worth it.

Emily shrugged, she knows better than to try and argue with Constanze she would always find what she needs one way or the other. “Alright, just give me a second I’m on the phone my suppliers to sort out a shipping error I’ll be back in a second.” And with that, she walked into the back again and Constanze was left to wait. She looked around to see Emily’s Newspaper and Magazine stand and decided to take a look. Most of the magazines she already read, so she looked through the newspapers and found one that caught her eye.

The headline was “Gruesome Murder in Belfast” with an image of police officers stand in front of a harbour building behind police tap. Constanze was interested so decided to pick it up and read. It said:

“This morning a Harbour worker in Belfast, who did not want to be identified, came across the remains of one of his co-workers who was found Murdered early this morning. The victim was Murphy O’Neal a Harbour Assistant who was working late last night, while no journalist was allowed inside due to concerns over contamination of evidence we have been told by the authorities that the murderer was extremely cruel and brutal with Mr O’Neal’s body being described as “Unrecognisable” by his co-worker. It has not been determined if this was performed on Mr O’Neal’s before or after he expired. Because of the viciousness of the murder authorities in Belfast are being placed on high alert and ships that left the harbour that night is planning on being checked during their journey and when they arrive at there destination on the chance that the murderer was onboard one when they left after the murder. If any new developments occur the authorities say that they will inform the public as soon as possible.”

Constanze finished reading finding it a little off-putting to read. How bad must the murder have been for it to make the front page? But before she could read another section, something about a woman going missing from the hospital on the same night, Emily came back out again.

“Okay, that’s done I’ll need £200 for please.” Constanze took out the money from her wallet and placed it on the table. Emily took the money, placed it in the cash register and picked up the battery before moving around the desk and handing it to Constanze. “Here you go, hope to see you again soon.” Stanbot, who was back under the battery holding it up, gave a thumbs up and waved at her before both he and Constanze walked out of the store managing to place the broom on top of the battery.

It only took until she was outside to realise that she might have bitten off more then she could chew as she was already straining the weight even with the help of her Stanbot. She really wished she took more out of her workshop before sealing it up, they were the ones that carried all the heavy stuff she ordered last year. She set the battery down to wait for Lucy who was still in the shop. Maybe she could ask Lucy to carry it. She was strong, but would that be right? Asking her to lug around the heavy battery that only she was going to use for most of the day would probably be asking too much. Constanze would just have to do her best.

As she was thinking this Lucy strolled out the shop, with two bottles tucked in her arm, towards Constanze. When she was close to Constanze she tossed the bottle saying, “Here you go.” Constanze caught it, opened it up and started drinking. Lucy’s eyes then turned to look at the battery and her eyes went a little wide when she saw how big it was. “Hey Cons, you sure you can carry that? It looks about as heavy as you do.”

Constanze put the bottle down and sign to Lucy, ‘It's heavy but I can handle it.’

Lucy looked very sceptical but said, “Okay.” She finished drinking before putting it in her bag asking, “Should we head over to the superstore and meet up with the other two?” Constanze nodded before putting her bottle in her pocket and went to put the battery in her bag. Once that was done then she put it on her back and started walking with Lucy walking beside her. 

When Lucy saw how much she was straining trying to carry the weight of the battery she stopped and said with a lot of concern, “Cons, give me the battery. You look like you’re about to be crushed.” Constanze turned to her and signed, ‘It's fine, I can handle it.’ Constanze didn’t want to burden her and a small stubborn part of her left over from last year wanted to show she could do it on her own. Lucy, however, was not having it as she very quickly moved behind her and pulled the bag off of her. She then took off her own, put on Constanze’s bag and handed her bag to Constanze. Constanze had recovered and was glaring at Lucy for taking her bag without permission. 

Lucy merely stared right back and said, “Glare at me all you want Atlas, you know that you wouldn’t be able to carry this thing a mile before collapsing. Me carrying it makes to most sense.” 

Constanze continued to glare for a few more seconds before sighing and ultimately relenting. She was right and Constanze doubted that even if she persisted Lucy would concede and just give it back to her. Besides, it looked like she was carrying it no problem, so she guesses it wouldn’t be an issue. Hopefully.

So, she put on Lucy’s bag and started making her way to the supermarket with Lucy following behind her. She chuckled a little when she saw the grumpy face Constanze was wearing. When Constanze hear that she looked over and frowned more which caused Lucy to laugh harder. Between her fits of laughter, she managed to say, “I’m sorry Cons. That face is more cute than threatening.” She then deteriorating back into a laughing fit and Constanze just looked away and continued down the road trying to hide her blush while Lucy calms down from laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Little Witch Academia it is created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Trigger.


	7. A stroll through town.

Lucy’s POV  
Lucy and Constanze arrived at the supermarket in short order, with Lucy carrying the battery with ease. The battery would be very heavy for anyone else, and Lucy would hate to think what it would be like for Cons if she had continued to carry it all the way here if she even could carry it all the way. Thankfully, Lucy’s “unique abilities” meant that the battery weighed little to her and walked as if she wasn’t carrying anything. She was crossing her fingers that both Amanda and Jasminka were still inside because while they would meet up with everyone else, later on, Lucy and Constanze wanted to try and meet up with the both of them beforehand.

They both sat down on one of the benches outside to wait for their other teammates to exit. Lucy gently put the bag with the battery down between the two of them trying to avoid damaging it before asking, “So what is this project your working that requires this monster?”

Constanze opened up her bag and took out her notepad turning it to a certain page and handed it to Lucy. Lucy was lost instantly, while she did recognise many of the magical symbols she couldn’t figure out the ones related to engineering and how it all came together. After about 5 minutes of trying to figure at least some of it out Lucy gave up and handed the notepad but to Constanze saying, “You’re going to have to explain that to me I can’t make out any of it.”

Constanze, who was busy enjoying the look of utter confusion on Lucy’s face, took the note pad and placed it on the bag and started to explain it to Lucy, ‘I’m working on a high-powered battery that runs on magic, but it can recharge by itself very quickly when it’s not being used.’ While doing this she was pointing to the diagrams on her notepad and explaining how it will all come together. After that Lucy, having the explanation spoon-feed to her, finally understood, kind of.

“Okay, I get it. But how are your other inventions like your Stanbot powered if you’re making this now?”

Constanze picked up Stan and opened his head and pointed to a glowing green cylinder at the centre before handing him to Lucy signing, ‘Those are what power them and my other things, but they can’t recharge on their own, so I have to charge them manually or connect them to a charger I made but doing both of those is time-consuming.’

Lucy nodded while still looking at the inside of the Stanbot then said while closing its lid, “Makes sense, hope it works out.” Then passed Stanbot back to Constanze. They waited outside for a few minutes making small talk before they saw Amanda and Jasminka walking out. They both quickly spotted Lucy and Constanze and walked over to them.

Amanda was the first to speak saying, “Hi, guys found what you were looking for?”

Constanze nodded while she and Lucy picked up their things and got up. When Lucy finished putting on Constanze bag she turned to Jasminka and Amanda and ask, “You guys get what you wanted?”

Jasminka nodded holding up her purse and showing a large number of snacks that were packed into it, then after a bit, she zipped up her purse and placed it under her shoulder. After that Amanda asked, “Hey Lucy, I forgot to ask earlier but don’t you want to get anything?”

“There are a couple of things, but I wouldn’t be able to use them at the Academy. There are one or two books I want to get but I’ve still got a couple of unread books in my bag already and I want to get through those before I buy any more.”

Amanda just nodded saying, “Fair enough.” She then glanced at her watch asking, “We’ve got about 40 minutes before we need to meet up with the others, mind if we go clothes shopping I want to take a look at what they’ve got.” Everyone nodded in agreement and headed off again following Amanda.

On the way Lucy couldn’t help but ask the question that was burning in her mind, “Hey Amanda, why’d you and Jasminka fly off earlier.”

Amanda started grinning like a madman replying, “Just thought it would be better for each of us to do our own thing and meet back up later.”

Lucy wasn’t buying any of it calling Amanda out saying, “Liar.”

Amanda then acted offended placing her hand over her heart replying, “Why would you dare accuse me of such things.”

Lucy smiled and retorted, “Your shit-eating grin was a big give away. But if you don’t want to fess up I won’t push.”

The four of them continued on for a short while until they reached a clothes store, and everyone started looking at what was on offer apart from Lucy who was just hovering around stating her option occasionally when one of the girls, mostly Amanda and Jasminka, picked out a piece of clothing and wanted to know what everyone thought.

Unknown POV – Liverpool

Meanwhile, in Liverpool, the local police were finishing up searching through a cargo ship that had just arrived in port coming from Belfast. When the three police officers were done, the one near the door called in an all-clear and made his way out with the other two in tow.

After a minute, a dark mist began to form on the roof of the room coalescing into a humanoid form and then into a black-haired woman who jumped down to the ground and land with a thud. She made her way across the ship until she came to the crew quarters. She searched around until she found a set of clothes that fit her and placed them to the side. She then ripped off the hospital gown and tossed it to the side and started tossing on her new clothes. She was tempted to do this sooner but with all the humans afraid that she might be on the boat and the authorities planning on searching the ship, stealing might have caused them to suspect her presence and caused the authorities to look harder for her and she couldn’t risk causing even more of a scene and possibly alerting her mark that she was still alive even more then she already had.

She had been cursing herself constantly since she killed that dockyard worker. It was sloppy and drew attention to herself and she was not eager to make that same mistake again. When she was finished dressing she walked out of the room and headed to a secluded and started waiting again. It was about 20 minutes before she started hearing movement down the hall and she took this as her chance to leave. She made her way up to the deck with no one sparing her more than a glance and eventually made her way off the ship and into town. Now begins the hard part of trying to figure out where her mark was now.

Lucy’s POV

After they were done at the shop they headed to the town square to wait for the others with Amanda and Jasminka were holding bags with things they brought from the store. They were all making small talk about mundane things like classes and such until they reached the square. Both Sucy and Lotte were already waiting there with Sucy holding a vail of…something. It was a jade green colour and glowing a little and Lotte seemed to be keeping her distance from it which didn’t exactly bode well.

Regardless, the four friends made their way over to the duo. Amanda was the one “Hey guys, what’d have you got there Sucy?”

Sucy just smiled and said, “It’s a surprise.” She didn’t say any more, Lucy wondered if she wanted to know more. Regardless of everyone she and the others sat down on the nearby benches and continued conversing with each other until Diana and Akko arrived with both of them holding a bag. After everyone had greeted them they were asked what they had bought at the book store, Diana had bought a two-volume book set on the hundred years war and Akko had bought an assortment of various manga series.

After that, they all head off to one of the nearby cafes to get something to eat and the rest of the day passed by fairly uneventfully. But despite that Lucy felt that something was off. Not anything with the group but something else, something foreboding. By the end of the day she had mostly dismissed it, but it was still there nagging at the back of her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, guys sorry for the long absence my Wifi and the phone lines got damaged during a storm when my home was struck by lightning so I had no wifi for about three weeks. Hopefully, I can now get but to posting regularly, again thanks for waiting.


	8. Secrets Hiding Under the Bed

One month later  


After about a month into the school year classes were really picking up. After two weeks of catch up and reviewing the basics the teachers were now starting to go into the more advanced studies. Lucy was doing fairly well although she had to spend quite a bit of time revising considering her absence last year. Thankfully with help from the others, she was mostly caught up and none of the lessons presented much of a problem. Apart from potion making which was still a big struggle for her. The fact that Professor Lukic was hovering over her shoulder when the chemistry sets were out to make sure nothing destructive happened didn’t help with her confidence.

On a much better note, the bunk bed was finally brought in, about two weeks after their extension to town, and she didn’t need to sleep on the floor anymore. Constanze was oddly insistent that Lucy gets the top bunk for some reason, but Lucy just shrugged it off.  
At the moment she was sitting at her desk reading, the others had to go off and meet up with the other teams about something, she didn’t know what that something was as they were acting really evasive about it for some reason, she decided to leave it be not wanting to rock the boat, it was probably a personal matter anyway.

Just as she was finishing up a chapter the door opened and Constanze walked into the room with some of her Stanbots holding large boxes big enough that Constanze could not see her sitting in the room. They walked over to her bed to place down the boxes while the Stanbot that opened the door closed it again, once that was done Constanze let out a tired sigh from carrying whatever was in it.

“You alright there Cons?” Lucy asked, smiling at the tired-looking Constanze.

Constanze jumped when she heard Lucy and moved to try and block the boxes from view but relaxed when she saw her sitting at the desk and not one of the teachers. Constanze then got on the bed and lied down to rest; she really needed to finish fixing her drones down in her workshop so that she didn’t have to carry this stuff herself. Her train of thought was interrupted when Lucy walked over and looked down on Cons asking, “Hey Cons, I was wondering, where do you keep all this all this stuff anyway?”

Constanze sat up and contemplated for a moment. Could she tell Lucy about her workshop? She showed no sign at all about being against using technology in the school but she really liked to keep her workshop under wraps as much as possible, only Amanda and Jasminka and Akko knew and apart from them no one else really knew. But Lucy was nice, certainly wouldn’t tell on her and besides she was her roommate and would probably find out eventually and for whatever reason Constanze really don’t want Lucy to think she didn’t trust her. With her mind made up, she patted the spot next to her on the bed.

Lucy was confused why Constanze wanted her to sit down but did so anyway when she looked to Cons for an explanation she signed, ‘Brace yourself.’

“What do you mean?” But as she asked this Constanze hit some hidden button on the bed stand and before she knows it Lucy falling down a deep shaft very quickly. On pure instinct Lucy started channelling power through her body to protect her, feeling it change her, skin became as strong as steel, her muscles burned with the power to rip tanks in two, her mind became hyper-focused to a level no natural being could match and of course her eyes changed and started to glow a little at the rush of power. Then she felt her, always lurking at the back of her mind, pushing her to do more, to use more power, to give in to her and let herself be warped and twisted by her. After a few seconds, she saw a cart at the bottom of the tunnel and twisted herself in the air then channelled more power to slow her descent. The voice got louder when she did and focused her will into keeping her down.

She landed with no issues and Constanze seemed fine too although she was more than prepared for what was happening. When Lucy realised she was in no danger she quickly retracted her powers as quickly as she could before Cons notice, flesh reverted back to normal, her muscles relaxed and her mind dulled once more after a moment of disorientation. She felt the voice retreat to the back of her mind. But she knows she would try to persuade her again. She always did. When her mind cleared she took in her surroundings and was momentarily surprised to see they were travelling down a tunnel very quickly towards wherever they were going.  
“Cons, what on earth is all th-“ Before Lucy could finish they came to a hard stop and the bottom opened and both of them fell out and landed on a sofa. When she took in her surroundings she was absolutely speechless with what she saw. She was sitting in a massive workshop with tools lining the walls, boxes filled with various different parts; there was a design board on the opposite side of the room with designs old as well as new sitting to the side and a computer sitting in the corner. The place looked like it needed a dozen or more construction workers to build it in any reasonable time, did Cons build this?

Her pondering was interrupted by Cons who was poking her cheek, smiling a little at Lucy’s shock while doing it. Lucy grabbed her hand and moved it away before she could poke her face again saying, “Okay, you got my attention! Just stop that.” Cons let out a silent giggle at Lucy’s annoyance but soon began to blush for some reason. Lucy realised why when she saw she was still holding her hand in hers and quickly released it apologising, blushing as red as a tomato and thanks to her skin it was even more noticeable then Constanze. She also had this peculiar sensation go up her spine when she realised she was holding Cons hand, it felt nice and Lucy didn’t know how to react to that. Constanze was also having a similar experience but she also didn’t know what to do about said feelings.

So they both stood there awkwardly for a while before Lucy tried to change the topic and asked, “So who built this place?”

Constanze knew very well that Lucy was just drawing attention away from the awkward moment but she appreciated it and responded by pointing to herself.  
“You built this?” Lucy asked, she knew Constanze was smart but really this entire place?

Constanze nodded again more insistently than before.

“How?” Before she could answer they heard a something moving down a nearby huge pipe they both turn to see Constanze Stanbots landing out the bottom holding several components in their hands and making their way over to the stacked boxes were. Turned to Lucy pointed to them and signed, ‘With magic and their help.’  
Lucy just stared at her blankly before saying, “Just you and your Stanbots.”

Constanze nodded again, feeling more than a little proud of the fact. Lucy just stood up looked around the workshop again as if to confirm what she was seeing before saying, “Remembered when I said how incredible it was when you showed me your Stanbot? I was clearly underselling you when I said that.”

She didn’t notice Constanze blush returned as her attention was focused on the drawing board asking, “Hey, are those plans for other projects you’re working on?”  
Constanze turned to were Lucy was pointing and nodded before signalling for Lucy to follow. When they both got to the board, she indicated to the design on the board and Cons signed, ‘This is the design I showed you a month ago, the rest are projects I’ve shelved or have already finished.’

When she looked at it Lucy could see similarities from when she saw it a while ago, but still could not understand most of it. She looked over to the other designs at the shelves filled with the other designs and asked, “Is it okay if I looked through these?”

Constanze nodded and seated herself on the chair in front of the drawing desk. With approval, Lucy looked through the shelf seeing all the different designs and projects all rolled up and placed in ordered piles. They were divided into two sections in-progress and complete. Lucy decided to take one from the completed section and opened it up.

While she was doing that, Constanze was gazing at Lucy as she read trying to see if anything was off about her. She had felt something when they were heading down to the workshop, similar to what had happened over a month ago in class but different somehow, and she could have sworn that Lucy's eyes glowed for a few moments but that had dissipated just as quickly though. She looked into Lucy’s eyes to see if anything had changed about them, nothing seemed out of place they were still the same cute red colour they always were. Realising she was losing focus again and those feelings from earlier were coming back she tried to dismiss those thoughts and concentration again, this has happened, more than once when she was around Lucy and she kept wondering why. After this, she’ll try looking it up to understand why or, failing that, ask one of the girls about it. 

She was brought out of her stupor when she realised Lucy was asking her something, so she focused her attention back onto Lucy who was looking at Constanze confused, “Hey Cons, you okay? You seem distracted.” Constanze reassured her she was fine by giving Lucy a thumb up. Lucy seemed too accepted and asked her original question, “What’s this design for.” 

Constanze looked at the designs, smiled and signed to Lucy, ‘That’s the design I used during last year’s Wild Hunt.’

“You took part in that? With this?” 

Constanze nodded.

“Well done, did you do it on your own?”

Constanze shook her head and signed to Lucy, ‘I did a lot of the building but in the final stretch Akko helped me get the parts I needed to finish it and gave me inspiration for the modifications you see at the back.’

Lucy looked at the back again and saw what she assumed were the proportions. “Wait if I’m reading this right it would be as big as this room were on earth would you put it?” 

Constanze, who was trying really hard not to smile and possibly give away the surprise, directed Lucy to put the designs down and follow her to the metal door at the side of the room. Constanze didn’t really know what to do with the ship but she didn’t really want to part with it so she kept it down here. She pulled open the door, observed and enjoyed Lucy dumbfounded expression at the sight of the ship. She felt an odd sense of satisfaction at seeing the look of amazement on Lucy’s face.

Lucy turned to Constanze indicated to the massive ship in the room and just asked, “How.” Constanze signed to Lucy, ‘Follow me, I’ll explain while showing you.’ She then headed into the room with Lucy following close behind. For the next while, Cons showed Lucy around the workshop and talking about the various things she built. Lucy was horrified when she found the gun she kept down here but Constanze managed to convince her it was a paintball gun although she did eyeball it once in a while as they continued. When it got close to dinner time they both decided to head back up to get something to eat but not before Constanze made it very clear to Lucy not to tell anyone else about the workshop. Among the many things Lucy learned that day, she learned that Constanze, despite her adorable look, could be quite scary if she really needed to be and she was not planning on incurring such wrath anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry for the long gap in publishing again, I've rewritten parts of this many times because I didn't want to romance part to come across as really cringy (Its up to you to say if I've failed or not) thanks for your patients. Also, I've rewritten the scene when Lucy gave Constanze the IRobot book because the more I thought about it the more stupid and idiotic it sounded so I've scraped it. Nothing vital has changed but I just wanted to explain so you would know and again thanks for your patients.
> 
> I do not own Little Witch Academia it is created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Trigger.


	9. Contemplation and Understanding

A week later – Lucy POV

As it was reaching mid-day Lucy was sitting outside the academy under one of the many trees surrounding the Academy contemplating. Over the past week, she had spent a lot of time hanging out with Constanze, doing a variety of things be it help her out with history or her helping Lucy with another subject, having lunch, talking about Constanze inventions and other things of a similar vein. However, it wasn’t long after Constanze show Lucy her workshop that Lucy started to notice the odd feeling in her gut, it was like the one she had when she first saw Constanze and it didn’t take long for her to realise what it meant, that she was interested in Constanze a little more than being friends. Sadly, that was not an entirely pleasant thing for Lucy as it left her feeling very conflicted. 

Lucy was struggling just to lie to Constanze about what she was now if she and Constanze ended up perusing a deeper relationship it would make it practically impossible for Lucy to do so. That and she just didn’t feel comfortable about lying to Constanze as things were now, to keep doing that if they started dating felt wrong on so many levels and that was all reliant on the idea that Constanze was even interested in her at all which she more than likely wasn’t. All of this kept looping around Lucy’s head since morning, she was constantly kept thinking back to all her interactions with Constanze to see if there was any indication that she was in any way interested in Lucy. Looking back, she thought there might have been some suggestion that she was, but nothing solid and certainly didn’t want to make a move based on her flimsy memories tainted by her desire to see what she wants to see.

Lucy just sighed and leaned back, resting her head against the tree wondering for the hundredth time in the last year why this had to happen to her, why did she have to be cursed to be this way and not be normal. Well, a normal witch anyways. She glanced down at her hand and then at the surrounding area to see if anyone was nearby, when she saw that there wasn’t anybody around, she looked down again and formed a fist. She began channelling her power and gradually opened her hand and as she did fire started to form in her hand, it was a deep unnatural, baleful red colour that seemed to darken the space around it instead to lighting it up. She just stared into it continuing to ponder on what to do now, should she risk it? After a while she closed her fist again, extinguishing the fire and sighing, ‘No’ she thought to pursue her feeling further, much as she wanted to, it could end catastrophically for all parties involved and the last thing she wants to do is hurt her new friends and Constanze, it was best to leave this as is.

She then got up, pick up her things and turned to head back to the Academy, she had agreed to help Red team with their homework for history class and it was best not to be late, as she made her way there she briefly wondered what the others were up to now but put it aside after she arrived at the Red teams dorm room.

Constanze Workshop – Constanze POV

Constanze had been staring at the design board for close to an hour now, trying to put thoughts to paper but every time she started, she trailed off thinking of Lucy. It was getting frustrating especially considering that she still can’t seem to pin down why she kept doing that. It had happened on occasion before this but now it was almost constant. After a few more moments Constanze sighed and placed the pencil next to the board, she was clearly not going to get much work done and decided to head back to the dorm room to think picking up one of the Stanbots that was waiting next to her as she walked.

Once she travelled back up, she laid down on her bed and started to think again trying to put together why she was feeling this way, she had tried and failed multiple times before to try and figure it out, but she had no luck figuring out why she kept drifting off thinking of her. She laid there for a while getting more frustrated as time went on. Her contemplation was interrupted when she heard the door open to see Amanda and Jasminka walking into the room carrying books they got from the library.

“Hey, Constanze you doing alright?” Amanda asked as she and Jasminka set their respective books down on the desk. Constanze gave them a nod before looking back up at the top bunk. Both Jasminka and Amanda looked at one another and headed over to Constanze side with Amanda asking, “You sure? You look frustrated.”

Constanze looked over to them, they looked a little concerned about her, she probably shouldn’t find that surprising considering her how frustrated she must have looked. She thought for a moment about whether she would tell them or not, but quickly decided it would be best to tell them, she had been trying to figure out why this was happening for a while and had gotten nowhere so far, her friends were probably her best bet to figuring out what was happening. She sat up against the wall and pulled her Stanbot, who was quietly sitting next to her, onto her lap and looked to at the others.

“Miss Constanze has been pondering on something for some time that she is unable to figure out.” Her Stanbot said, speaking for her to Amanda and Jasminka.  
“Really? Anyway, we can help.” Amanda said, although the way she said it made it sound like she had already known what this was about and sat cross-legged on the bed with Jasminka doing the same while smiling encouragingly at Constanze, who was feeling a little unsure about how to explain this.

Her Stanbot continued saying, “Miss Constanze has been distracted recently with thoughts of Miss Lucy that Miss Constanze cannot seem to figure out, would either of you two be able to shed light on this?” As her Stanbot finished she noticed she both Amanda and Jasminka were smiling knowingly at her.   
She raised an eyebrow at them before Amanda skirted forward still smiling and said, “I think I know why you're so distracted by Lucy.”

“Why?” Stanbot asks, with Constanze interested piqued at the statement.

“Well, you know when Akko told us about when she was having odd thoughts about Diana?” Amanda explained Constanze thought about for a second, not getting what Amanda was until it finally hit her. Her eyes went wide as she realised why this was happening, then she got embarrassed about the implication and how blatantly obvious it was now that she realised what it was, with her face turning bright red. Amanda couldn’t help but snicker a little at the scene, cut short with Constanze throwing her pillow at her still looking down even more embarrassed now. “Starting to understand why you’ve been distracted Cons?”

Constanze, who was now self-consciously holding her Stanbot while looking down, nodded. Dozens of questions were now occupying her mind; did Lucy like her the same way or did she just want to be friends? Would it work out? 

Her thoughts were interrupted with Jasminka placing a hand on her shoulder while smiling reassuringly and Amanda opening up saying, “If you have any worries Cons you can tell us. Nothing you say will leave this room if you don’t want it to okay.” Constanze took a moment before nodding, pulling out her wand and pulling over her chalkboard and chalk over to her, she didn’t really want to talk about something like this through her Stanbot, so she placed him down to the side. When she picked up her chalkboard and wrote on it, ‘Do you think she would like me back?’

Amanda answered saying, “Cons she’s clearly been interested in you for a while, I’ve seen the way she looks at you and even if she wasn’t, I doubt she wouldn’t be understanding of your feelings.”

“Yeah, besides she’d be crazy not to date someone like you.” Jasminka chimed in encouragingly while smiling at Constanze. Constanze just started blushing again but eventually wrote down ‘Thank you’ on her chalkboard. She then wiped it away and wrote down ‘How do I ask her?’

Amanda scrunches her face in thought for a minute before snapping her fingers saying, “How about you write a letter and give it to her when you two have some privacy, so you don’t freeze up trying to tell her.” Constanze thought about it for a second before nodding and once again wrote ‘thanks’ in her chalkboard.   
“Anytime,” Amanda said, before heading over towards the books they placed down moved one to the side to reveal a magazine tucked in between that she picked up and sat down with. Before she started reading, she looked back at Constanze saying “and if you need any more help, let us know, we’ll definitely help, right Jas?” Jasminka gave an affirmative nod before heading over to the desk, grabbing one of the books and sitting down on the bed to read.

After that Constanze went to her bag, pulled out her note pad and started thinking about what to write down. She had never done this before but wanted to at least try before asking her friends for help. Throughout the process, she kept wondering if Lucy was even interested and that Amanda had simply misinterpreted what Lucy was doing before reminding herself that even if Lucy wasn’t interested, she would more then likely let her down genially and that if Lucy was interested then she couldn’t let her fears get in the way. This process lasted for about an hour’s, cobbling together a few attempts to write something down before Constanze asked Amanda and Jasminka to help her. With their help, she put together a rough draft of what she wanted to say before they had to head out to class. On the way, Constanze was hoping that the letter would work, although such thinking did little to ease her anxiety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its been a while hasn't it? Sorry about that I vastly underestimated how much time college would take up (Like the idiot I am). Just to be clear I am not giving up of this I just can't guarantee the updates will be consistent, Ill keep trying to do one every month or so but don't hold me to that. Thanks for your patience, I hope you enjoyed my cringy writing and see you soon.
> 
> I do not own Little Witch Academia it is created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Trigger.


	10. The Moment of Truth

A few days later – Lucy’s POV

It was yet another evening that Lucy found herself with most of Team Red in their room. She agreed to help them with their magical history since she always been great at the subject and wanted to help make sure things stay on track for them. They had started off okay but soon enough they ended up hitting a wall when they started on the topic about the early history of Luna Nova Academy. Akko had her head buried in one of the books from the library groining in, what Lucy would concede was, justified frustration.

“Why did they have to pick this as the topic for class?” Akko said, head still buried in her book, barely being heard.

“Because it’s the jumping off topic for the rest of the magical history module.” Lucy replied, not studying herself since she had already known most of what was required anyway. Instead, she was reading one of the books she brought with her that she hadn’t gotten around to reading yet. It was just her, Akko and Lotte in the room as Sucy went off to do…something, she wasn’t very specific but Lucy didn’t really feel the need to press for information and from what she had heard from her during the other study sessions she knows the stuff needed well enough, so Lucy wasn’t exactly getting her pants in a bunch over her not being here one time. 

“Come on Akko it’s not that bad.” Lotte said trying to be encouraging. She was just going over study notes from yesterday since she didn’t really have much time to look over them yesterday since she and Lucy ended up in a massive debate over the Night Fall series when Lotte brought it up. Lucy argued the series was derivative trite dragged well beyond its life span and then dragged a little more for good measure, ending up devolving into pure insanity. By the time they both stopped they realised that it had been over two hours and they got little work done, so in order to avoid it happening again they agreed not to argue or debate about it during study time to avoid not wasting time.

Akko just lifted her head, turned the book to face her and said while pointing, “They change the name of the academy three times and we have to remember all of them even though the name is all they changed and half the people we’re studying are called Agnes. How is it not that bad?”  
Before Lotte could respond Lucy spoke up, her eyes not leaving her book, saying, “If you think that’s bad try reading about monarchies it gets so much worse.” She set to book to the side and told Akko, “Okay, since your struggling take a 10-minute break and then try making mind maps to see if that helps, I’ll get some paper and pens okay?”

Akko response was to lean back breathing a sigh of relief while giving a thumbs up and Lotte getting out her latest copy of Night Fall, Lucy couldn’t decide if that was just to spite her or not but remembered the rule and decided not to comment it. With that Lucy got up and went to her bag and dug out what she needed before heading back and setting it down on the table. She picked her book back up again and began reading once more or trying to. She really couldn’t focus since she was consumed in thought, the reason was Constanze, she was acting unusual lately being strangely very awkward whenever she was around, she’d tried asking the others why, but they always end up smiling and quite noticeable not answer her questions.  
In the end, she just stopped trying and hoped Constanze would explain what was going on, or she would ask herself if things ended up deteriorating for whatever reason. She just hoped it won’t come to that.

She put such thoughts to the side and got back to helping Akko and Lotte with their studying. They were doing better now that they weren’t just reading straight out of the book and things started to go quite smoothly, thankfully and stayed as such for the rest of their study time.

Constanze POV

Constanze had been standing outside Red Teams door for about half an hour trying, and failing, to summon up the courage to knock on the door. She had the letter in her hand, the last of many different versions she had made and hoped it was enough to convey what she wanted to say. She had thought of the various ways in which this meeting could go and needed to keep pulling herself out of such thinking as it always seemed to end up in the worst-case scenarios.

She had decided to just wait until they were done studying since they were almost done now anyway. She briefly contemplated whether to try and do this another day but know that if she did that then she could end up in a cycle of postponing for who knows how long, it was better to do it now regardless of the result.

She heard them move inside the room, tipping her off that they were finished so she moved to stand in front of the door. She heard Lucy say her farewells, muffled by the door, and after a few moments, the door opened and out she came, look surprised to see Constanze standing at the door.

“Oh, hey Cons.” She said before shutting the door. She turned back to Constanze waiting for her to respond. Constanze however, was frozen on the spot and didn’t know what to do, despite trying to build herself up for this. After a few seconds of nothing, Lucy stepped forward asking, “You okay Cons? Do you need anything?”  
Saying that seemed to finally broke Constanze out of her stupor and after a few more moments stepped forward and took Lucy’s free hand and began taking her to one of the quieter areas of the academy. Lucy was too taken aback to resist and ended up being dragged to wherever Constanze was taking her, becoming very concerned as to the reason behind her odd behaviour.

When they finally stopped, they were in one of the older areas of the school more or less abandoned with the empty rooms used as extra storage. Even the cleaners rarely come here, not that they really needed to, which made it a good place to meet up with others if you wanted privacy. Constanze lead her into one of the empty room’s, barren of anything apart from some tables and chairs off to the side, and finally turned back to face Lucy. 

Lucy by this point was getting anxious about what was going on, wondering what all this was for and hoping this was not going to end badly and asked, “Cons what’s wrong? Why are you acting like this?”

Constanze, with some nervousness, finally handed Lucy the letter. Lucy took it, looking a little confused, opened it and started reading. The letter only took up about two-thirds of the page and probably didn’t take that long to read but to Constanze it felt like an eternity, second by second dragging on as dread built up in her chest, it didn’t help that Lucy was reading at an angle that meant she couldn’t really see her face, making the feeling all worse. After a point, she pulled her hat down to cover her face waiting for what she believed was inevitable rejection. 

She eventually heard the letter being folded and felt Lucy put her hand on her shoulder simply saying in a calm voice, “Constanze.”

Constanze worked up the courage to lift her hat and was stunned to see Lucy was smiling.

“I would love to go out with you.”, she said, Constanze heard the words but was struggling to process what Lucy said, when she did though a sense of overwhelming happiness swept through her and in the heat of the moment she rushed forward and hugged Lucy tightly and after being taken aback by the sudden contact Lucy returned the hug, all be it not as bone-crushing as Constanze. 

After a while, Constanze realised that she was hugging for a little too long and let go and, like Lucy, was blushing like crazy but still smiling. While they were standing there wondering what to do next Lucy decided to take the initiative and offered her hand saying, “It’s getting late, lets head back to our room.”  
Constanze looked at her hand and somewhat timidly took it. They then headed off back to their rooms smiling the entire way.

Lucy’s POV

After they arrived back in their room they were greeted by Amanda and Jasminka sitting on one of the beds, more than likely watching the door like hawks waiting to see what had happened. When they saw the two of them holding hands they were overjoyed and sat the two of them down and started asking them a massive amount of questions, by the end, it had felt more like an interrogation than anything else but indulged their curiosity. By the time they were done, it was getting late and they all headed off to bed, with Constanze and Lucy hugging before getting into their respective beds.

Not long after the nice high Lucy was riding on plummeted to earth when she realised the full implications, being too joyful to remember what she was hiding. What she was. How was she going to handle this? She started tossing anything ideas in her head on how to handle this, feeling like she was going around in circles with no end in sight. Eventually, though, she decided on a course of action, as uncomfortable as it was, she would have to keep hidden it for now, at least until their relationship was on firm grounds and she felt more comfortable about telling her. With the decision made, she was at least able to finally go to sleep, although not without a deep feeling of guilt for not telling Constanze the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well if the past few months have shown me anything is that if you need anything done quickly, don't come to me. I've got no excuse, I should have done this much sooner than I have but at least it's here now.
> 
> As always if there are any problems you want to flag up to me let me know and I hope you enjoyed reading.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work, please if there is any criticism please let me know. 
> 
> I do not own Little Witch Academia it is created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Trigger.


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